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Jul 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 26, 2007 at 1:20 PM

kirk wessler column on cubs rookie Jake Fox

Kirk Wessler

Lou Piniella’s office door was closed, and the Chicago Cubs manager stood outside in the hallway with a motley crew of reporters and other baseball people.
“Fox is in there doing an interview,” Piniella explained.
Not Fox the network, understand. Fox the rookie.
A moment later, the door opened and Jake Fox stepped out.
“Man, that’s a lot of nerve for a guy without a major-league hit yet,” Cubs general manager Jim Hendry chided.
Fox simply smiled. A Cub for all of one week now, Fox smiles a lot and laughs easily. Such as when he recalls the last time he took over the agenda in Piniella’s office; a spring-training encounter in which Fox asked the skipper to give him a good look before sending him back to the minors.
“My dad always taught me, if you have an issue with somebody, go talk to him, man-to-man,” Fox said. “Well, I knew there was a lot of criticism for the way I played, especially on defense. But I felt I had improved, and I wanted Lou to see for himself what I could do before he made his cuts. I didn’t want him deciding from some report.”
Fox hit .462 for the Cubs in spring training — and got sent back to Class AA Tennessee, where he finished last season. But after the way Fox had swung the bat in March, he went with a mandate from Hendry:
Learn to play other positions besides catcher.
That was tough to take. Fox loves being a catcher. But it was an easy decision to comply, because he sensed his future at stake.
Through the first half of the season, Fox played mostly at first base, some left field, some right field, even an inning at third. He caught occasionally. And he continued to swing a hot bat: a .284 average, with a Southern League-leading 18 home runs and 60 RBIs in 91 games.
“I’m still not the prettiest-looking outfielder or first baseman, but I’ll put my body on the line to get the job done,” Fox said.
Funny stuff happens in baseball. The Cubs have a former All-Star, Derrek Lee, at first. Five-tool stud Alfonso Soriano plays left. Cliff Floyd, an experienced thumper, is the main man in right. They have two catchers, Jason Kendall and Koyie Hill, and a third, Henry Blanco, doing injury rehab in Peoria.
But they don’t have anybody who plays all of those positions. Besides, hard as Fox had been working and impressive as he had been at the plate, Piniella and Hendry figured this was good a time as any to give the kid a big-league look.
Fox reported to Chicago last Thursday.
“Phenomenal and chaotic, both at the same time,” Fox said of his whirlwind week.
He got the good news at dinner last Wednesday night, in Huntsville, Ala. He flew to Chicago immediately. His wife, Allison, drove to Indiana to hook up with Jake’s parents, then continued to Chicago to see his debut. Then she flew to their home in Knoxville, Tenn., grabbed a bunch of their stuff and drove to meet up with him in St. Louis.
Family and friends are showing up at the ballpark every day. One buddy took a red-eye flight from LA to Chicago to watch Fox’s debut, which included his only at-bat to date, a double-play groundout.
Fox loves that they’ve come to share in his experience, and he’ll talk non-stop about the support he enjoys from his parents, and the grandparents who used to drive border-to-border in Indiana when he was a Little Leaguer and all over the Midwest when he was an all-American at Michigan and who, since the Cubs drafted him in 2003, have followed his pro career from spring trainings in Arizona to rookie league in Florida.
“A lot of people helped get me here, and this is the beginning of the realization of a dream,” Fox said. “I love to share it, but it’s my job now, and I’ve got to make sure I take advantage of the opportunity and perform well enough to stay for the long haul.”
One thing he has not yet experienced is rookie hazing. He is a little surprised, because his reputation for being gullible precedes him.
In 2004, while at Class A Lansing, Fox one day came to the ballpark expecting to catch Mark Prior, then the Cubs’ ace pitcher, on an injury-rehab assignment. But Lansing manager Julio Garcia sent word to Fox, through a coach, that the kid wasn’t ready to handle a hurler of Prior’s stature; the Cubs would be sending backup big-leaguer Paul Bako to catch the game.
Remembering his father’s advice, Fox went to Garcia’s office to plead his case, to no apparent avail.
“He told me, ‘You’re just not good enough to catch a guy like that yet. Nothing you can do about it. That’s the way it is,’” Fox said. “I was (ticked) off. Then, as I started to leave, he said, ‘Fox, on your way out, hang this lineup card on the wall.’”
Fox looked, saw his name written on the card as the starting catcher — and knew he’d been had.
“I still don’t know all the tricks of the trade,” Fox said, “but I know something’s gonna happen. I’ll just roll with the punches. I’m the rookie.”
He laughed. Life is good.
KIRK WESSLER is Journal Star executive sports editor/columnist. Contact him at (309) 686-3216 or kwessler@pjstar.com.

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